3) 
ne 

; 
/ 


S a result of the Eddy Meetings in Lahore, 
India, over 200 students have signed cards 
agreeing to study some phase of the Life of Christ. 


Three have been baptized and others are 
receiving special instruction. Sfecial prayer 1s 
asked tor the Bzb/e Classes, ingutrers, those who 
have been baptized, and for the churches. 


HE CRY OF SIXTEEN MILLIONS 


The India Council at its second Annual Meeting sent the 


following paragraphs to the Foreign Board as expressive 


of the great need of India for the Gospel NOW. 
EDITOR. 


Our cry to the Presbyterian Church in America is the cry of sixteen million. 
We had almost said it was the cry of India’s three hundred and fifteen million: 
and in some sense it is. Our work indirectly touches them all. But at least we 
speak for the sixteen million within the border of our three Missions for whom 
we are wholly responsible. Has our Church fully faced and realized that 
responsibility? 

It is a responsibility enormously heightened to-day. Whatever the issue of 
the present war, to no country occupied by our Board will its results be more 


3 


tremendous and momentous than to India. She has in a new way taken her place 
in the sisterhood of lands that make up the British Empire. New powers will 
surely be granted, new opportunities will arise, new crises and new perils will 
have to be met. The Christian forces must be ready to help in this hour of 
India’s need. 

Nor is it to be forgotten that England, depleted in men and money by the 
terrific conflict, will for the present be helpless to increase, possibly even to main- 
tain, the strength of her missionary effort. Double duty must be done by the 
American Churches. India’s claim on America for help in things spiritual is as 
Belgium’s for things temporal. 

Will you of the Presbyterian Church adequately respond to this call? Let us 
give you a measure of the word “adequately.” One of our Missions, adding up 
the men and women called for by its several stations, reached a total of 37 
(besides wives of missionaries). That would mean about one hundred for our 
three Mission's: and we could place and use every one of them. But we want to 
be reasonable. Laboriously and reluctantly we have made up a preferred list of 
35 (exclusive of wives). Will you respond to this call? The burden is heavy on 
our hearts: will you lighten it? India more than ever needs Christ: will you help 
us meet the need, and furnish the funds to send the workers? 


4 


N THE KASGANJ FIELD 


SELF-SUPPORT 


A real beginning in self-support has been made: Rev. Ganda Mal of the 
Punjab told of his experiences and of the progress of self-support in the Punjab, 
in the United Presbyterian Church. The workers were much interested and one 
of the village pastors volunteered to give up his salary. He has a large family 
so that it was a great trial for him. His wife has joined in loyally and the people 
in his village are beginning to realize that he is dependent upon them. The 
Kasganj Church is contributing six rupees for a few months, hoping that by the 
time this is withdrawn the people will fully support him. Real self-support is a 
new thing in the villages. Giving according to their ability was not inculcated in 
the early stages of the work. Most of the older Christians believed that a donation 
of an egg or two, or a half-cent in money answered all requirements. Times are 


5 


hard and in many places the people have often gone hungry, so to start a cam- 
paign for self-support seems untimely, but hard times do not seem likely to 
leave soon. 

The Kasganj Church has taken over the Christians in the city muhallas as 
its ‘special care and has taken the support of a village pastor in conjunction with 
the muhalla Christians. The Church is very small being made up of the families 
of the teachers in the middle school and servants of the missionary, but at present 
the Church is giving two-thirds of the worker’s ‘salary. It is gratifying to see 
the interest these school teachers take in the work for the low caste Christians. 
They are conducting Sunday Schools and coming and going among them without 
hesitation. During our revival meetings in March a delegation, singing, marched 
through the city straight to the largest muhalla, where a ‘splendid meeting was 
held. Next day many people asked these teachers what special celebration was being 
held among the Christians but no one found fault. This surprised us as a great 
deal of effort had been made previously to injure our school because this was said 
to be a sweeper mission. 


VILLAGE WORK 


The village Christian community now numbers 6,296. A few new villages 
have been added but the baptisms this year have been almost entirely in our old , 
villages. Our communicants’ roll was increased by 135 names, making a total of | 
504 communicants. The teachers’ registers show just fair progress in teaching to 
read. Most of the effort seems to have been put in getting readers more proficient. 
Many are reported as having learned to sing at least six songs, and to repeat six 
miracles and parables. The number able to lead in prayer has grown very much: 
As to Sunday services it is hard to say very much. The people in many villages 
say they hold a little service of song and prayer by themselves on Sundays. The 
obligation to hold such a service is at any rate beginning to be felt, and doubtless 
meetings are held in many places without any outside assistance. Singing must 
have a large place in such services and so we can not have too many songs which 
convey Christian teaching. Kasganj station has tried to add to the number of 
simple but useful songs and has this year published a little book of songs, some 
new, some old, and some remodelled. One which has taken the fancy of the people 
is entitled “Rejoice, O Christian, and Let Your Heart Be Filled with Joy.” 
Another is a song composed by one of our preachers, following a blessing he re- 


fi 


ceived during our revival meetings. In lighter strain one tells the ways of the 
bhagats, how he hunts out the sick that he may get a feast from the sacrifice he 
persuades to be offered for the sick. The bhagat is the only kind of priest the 
sweepers had. He is ignorant and unscrupulous and is recognized by his long 
hair. He does not gladly give up his income obtained by preying on the fears 
and superstitions of the people. This year their bhagats have been very active in 
some sections but circumstances or Providence have been against them. In one 
village a big sacrifice was held, and now that community is almost gone. A few 
days after the sacrifice nine adults had died and a number who had attended from 
other villages were also dead. In one village a man was dying on his bed while 
all his relatives were busy sacrificing to the evil spirits. In another place a youth 
was sick. His father held a sacrifice but he died himself soon after. In another 
place an old woman told of how she had sacrificed seven pigs on the bhagat’s 
order, but she lost both her child and the pigs. The great proportion of our 
people, however, have lost faith in the offerings to the evil spirits and we hope 
that before long they will all rise above these superstitions. 

One is tempted to write the report of the village work when incidents and 
encouragements are fresh in mind after several months of camping. Now as I 
write, the freshest experience is a trip I took on the motor-cycle. When I left 


8 


the main road it was to find the village road like a lagoon, and utterly im- 
passable. I turned and went to a place on the main road. From there I went 
with a preacher to some villages nearby. A sudden storm came up and we were 
glad to get into a broken-down rest house with enough roof left to keep one bed 
dry. On this one bed we all sat and tried to do some work. When the rain finally 
ceased the whole country was flooded and no road could be seen in many places. 
During the summer the people are busy watching their crops and when they 
do come home they are tired out. It is in the winter with its cold mornings and 
evenings that work can be best done, while the people huddle over their little 
smoky fires. Even in the winter one has experiences. One night rain came up 
suddenly, and before we could do anything two inches of water had gathered on 
the floor of the tent. At the same camp some thieves came and loosing our 
buffalo started off with her. At another place thieves made attempts all night 
long to loot our camp. But one of the greatest hardships in camp is, that one 
oftentimes cannot get water fit to use. We have to use what our people use and 
that often is not good. The Christians’ wells are generally a hole in the ground 
and all the surface filth can drain into it. In some places the water in all the 
wells is very brackish. But one appreciates the good all the more when it comes. 
The Achalpur section is our oldest work. We camped there first and on the 


9 


last day we held a special meeting. We had almost given up hope of having an 
audience as the appointed time had passed and no one had appeared. But things 
do not go by clock time nor like clockwork. In due time people began to come 
and kept coming till our large tent was filled with people—Christian and non- 
Christian. Of the Hindus many boldly entered and seated themselves. Others 
more timid stood up inside while the most timid stood looking on from the out- 
side. The whole village was interested in us and many were very kind. The 
contrast with former years is very great. 


KASGANJ STATION REPORT. 


10 


UN THE MAINPURI FIELD 


A NEW BROTHERHOOD 


One of the greatest needs of our Christian Community is the sense of a 
new brotherhood in Christ. In our District, although not always the case, it 
is no uncommon thing to be able to go into the Christian quarters and to find. 
several men sitting outside, smoking the common pipe of brotherhood, which in 
India means so much. These men may be from several different villages and may 
be intimate friends, but if one of them is asked if the man next to him is a 
Christian, he will perhaps look rather blank and inquire how he can be expected 
to know that. If Christians of one village are asked if the sweepers of the next 
village have been baptized, one man is likely to say “Yes’’ and another “No.” 
After a lively discussion the only thing proved is that they know nothing about it, 
nor up to this time have so much as inquired into the matter. These incidents are 


11 


significant of far-reaching conditions which we must not ignore. There is the old 
brotherhood or caste which with its exceedingly loose organizations, but exceedingly 
tight boundaries, by the force of circumstances holds this people together, and 
greatly hinders the realization of a need for the new brotherhood to be found in 
the Church. We are forced to build upon the old brotherhood to a certain extent, 
and in so far as it has delivered the people en masse, it has been a tremendous 
help. But it is so honeycombed with things not only non-Christian but un- 
Christian that one of the first essentials is the feeling amongst our people of new 
ties that bind. 

We feel that one effective way to arouse this new idea is by the Christian 
mela or gathering. During the months of April, June and August quite a number 
of these small melas were held in the Southern portion of the District, and many 
more have been planned for the coming season. These gatherings have not as 
yet assumed proportions. The average attendance has been about 50, with about 
7 villages represented. With one exception they have been accompanied by some- 
thing to eat, given by the men at whose house they gather. There is much to be 
said against a feast accompanying such a meeting, but with custom as it is, it is 
an exceedingly difficult matter with which to deal. 

These gatherings have been held but for a day. A group of singers keep 


12 


things lively with song. The conversation is directed along the lines that will 
arouse thought concerning a new brotherhood, or rather the Church. With as 
many bhangies as we have around in this District it is inevitable that a few 
of them should find their way into such a gathering. At first they feel that they 
havea perfect right there. But thisis a Christian gathering and one of its chief aims 
is to make the Christians feel that it is something entirely different from the usual 
old time sweeper gathering to eat pig. So when the bhangies of the audience are 
perceived, they are asked kindly to sit to one side in both the meetings and the 
feast. It is a crude distinction to make, but is one that can be understood by the 
dullest. At each meeting we have baptisms, and twice all the bhangies present 
have asked for baptism before the day was over. 

In these meetings a sort of picture roll is used that turns by a crank. The 
pictures are of the Christ. As far as possible the people themselves tell the 
stories of the picture, and the moral is brought home that this wonderful Saviour 
is their Saviour, the leader of their new brotherhood or Church. At the end of 
the day a Chaudari or Chief Man is chosen, and inducted into the office of a 
Christian Chaudari, for a term of one year, with all due form and ceremony. As 
far as possible, an influential but young and enthusiastic man is chosen. As a Sign 
of his office, with proper words, a white turban is bound on his head, which he is 


13 


charged to ever honor and keep white as a sign of his new position. There are 

frequently quite a number of candidates for the office, and it is sometimes quite 

difficult to choose. Both for efficiency, therefore, and to cover up hurt feelings, 
we elect a number of Assistants or Naib Chaudaris, who are given as a sign of 
their office a scarf of yellow cotton cloth. 

These men are then presented with carefully printed, dated and signed cer- 
tificates of their standing, and a list of their duties are somewhat as follows: 
Within his territory to collect offerings for the Lord. 

To preach to Christians and non-Christians by means of a picture roll. 

To wipe out such bad customs as lapses into certain forms of idolatry, 
marriage of Christians with bhangies by the old rites, ete. 

To establish such new customs and institutions as Christian services and 
prayers, Christian marriages, schools, and the new brotherhood of 
the Church. 

To cut the Hindu sign of the pigtail from the heads of Christians. 

To inquire into the truth and falsehood of the law-suits of Christians. 

The special spreading of the Gospel amongst baptized sweepers. 


Ha whe 


~1d> Ul 


MAINPURI STATION REPORT. 
14 


ITH THE SWEEPERS 
-— OF NORTH INDIA 


We have been wondering what you think they are like. We have talked a 
great deal about their serfdom, their poverty, their degradation — in a word, that 
they are India’s sewers. It seems almost impossible to overstate this side of their 
condition. But to tell of it and it alone, may give a wrong impression. For there 
is another ‘side to their lives, a side that makes them much more worth while as 
members of the Kingdom of God. 

These people in times of famine are not so likely to suffer as other people, 
who in normal years are in much better circumstances. In the first place they 
have no appearances of respectability to keep up, and in the second place, unlike 
their neighbors, they can eat anything without being polluted. In famine, food, and 
good food, too, has been offered to starving caste men, and it has gone untouched, 
the men preferring literally to die of starvation to breaking their caste by 


15 


touching unlawful food. The sweepers have nothing like this to contend with for 
they will eat almost anything from anywhere. 

They are not a people physically inferior. Amongst them are many men and wo- 
men of unusually fine physique and carriage. In pre-British days when the Kohhatris, 
or warring class, indulged in many feuds amongst themselves, the sweepers were 
largely involved, and were depended upon as good fighters. They are a brave 
people on the whole. A caste man in a fight with a sweeper is at a great dis- 
advantage. To be touched by his opponent is to be religiously polluted and before 
the fight begins it makes him afraid. The sweeper on the other hand has the 
distinct advantage of being unable to fall religiously or socially, for he is already, 
in public opinion, at the very bottom. Realizing this to the full, it makes him 
reckless and unafraid. 

This quality makes the sweeper a most desirable man for many difficult posi- 
tions. He is a favorite for the village watchman or policeman. His pay as such 
is not big—a dollar a month — but the position brings with it many perquisites, 
besides bringing him into contact with all the village people as well as Govern- 
ment officials. Again he is a favorite as a collector of rents and debts. At first 
this seems very strange, for such a position would seem one of honor and respon- 
sibility. But Indians as a rule are very loath.to pay debts and rents, and are 


16 


quite impervious to the usual arguments. But the sweeper-collector, backed by 
the landlord or merchant, with his long loaded stick, is in himself a good argument 
for prompt payment, for it is a great dishonor for a caste man to suffer the abuse 
of a sweeper, and still worse to be touched by him. 

For years, ground under the heel of his village, it has been hard for the sweeper 
to eke out an existence. This has led to much migration. He has found ready 
employment in his line in the cities of Calcutta and Bombay. A member of almost 
every family has been in Bombay or Calcutta at some time, but it is not custom- 
ary to stay long. They go and come, scarcely ever losing touch with their village 
homes. 

Many of them have acted as household servants for British residents, and 
have in this capacity traveled extensively. Those of their number who have gone 
to Calcutta usually learn to read and to write, and in turn teach their children. 
It is no exaggeration to say that the percentage of literates amongst the sweepers 
is much higher than amongst the chamars, the people next higher to them, and 
numerically much greater. It can easily be 'seen, that in such matters as the use 
of the Urdu language, and in good judgment as men of the world, such ex- 
periences would tend to lift them up above the illiterate and provincial caste men 
of their village who have never been away from their homes. 


17 


HOPES 


These people in this section of the country have very largely turned to Christ. 
From a missionary standpoint we are not dealing with a helpless people, which 
from a narrow viewpoint would be a Christian philanthropy, nor are we dealing 
with an isolated people, which again from a missionary viewpoint could not con- 
tain national aspirations. 

On the other hand many of our people are brave and capable. They often 
hold positions that of necessity bring them into wide contact with men and events. 
They are not isolated, but territorially are extremely well distributed for evan- 
gelistic endeavor. Their women go into many, if not almost all, of the homes of 
the village as servants. Thousands of these people have accepted Christ. Do you 
think it foolish for us to dream that in and through them lies the hope of the 
conquest of India for Christ? They many times have most unique opportunities 
of speaking for and of spreading their religion. Many of us believe that the 
quickest way to the heart of the whole of India is to make of these people worthy 
servants of the Lord. 


“FIELD NOTES.” 


18 


ITH THE SCHOOLS HI BRAR! 
IN WESTERN INDIA 


> 1) ke \ 


NEED OF TEACHER-TRAINING 


Did I tell you last year about the description of Niagara Falls given by one 
of our Indian assistants when Mr. Tedford and I were showing magic lantern 
pictures to quite an audience? In telling about the wonders of Niagara Falls 
he said that they were two thousand miles high. I could not help laughing aloud 
at this statement, so he realized that he had made a mistake and hastened to 
correct it. “Oh,” he exclaimed, “I made a mistake; the Falls are only two hundred 
miles high”! 

A few days ago, while examining a class in dictation, I came across a 
sentence that matches this description of the Falls very well. The teacher who 
made up the sentence evidently wished to give the children some practice in 


19 


writing numbers; so he told them to write this: “The driving wheel of a locomotive 
is twenty miles in circumference.”” When I asked him whether he had ever seen 
ai locomotive with a wheel that size, he was not sure whether he had or not; so 
I asked him how high such a wheel would be. When he heard that it would be 
about six miles high, he admitted that he had never seen such a locomotive. I 
have come to the conclusion that if I wish to 'see the falls that are 200 miles high, 
the best thing to do will be to get into the locomotive that has wheels twenty 
miles in circumference and start off at full speed. 


DHE SPP oS 


A year ago someone admitted to the Girls’ Home the wildest, strangest, 
queerest child you could imagine. I had always called her Gipsy Jane, for I never 
considered that she could be tamed. Many of her father’s family I knew had 
been well educated, but this child defied discipline. Left to grow up as she would 
with an over-indulgent, busy, untaught, widowed mother, her very manner repelled 
restraint. If you looked at her, she took to her heels; if you attempted to speak 
to her, she ran like a reindeer, and perhaps you would not see her again for days 


20 


or weeks. She had never seen a letter, and the idea of keeping that child still 
long enough to learn the alphabet was ridiculous to think of. She would be more 
likely to smash her slate into pieces at the first fit of rage, and then run away 
for a year for fear of being punished. But the deed was done; she had been ad- 
mitted, and all I could do was to await developments. At first she was shy, and 
then she was fascinated by the new order of things. The pictures on the wall, 
the children’s singing, the organ’s music, all held her with awe and wonder and 
delight. Our boys and girls often repeat in concert many Scripture passages, and 
this more than anything else drew her. Little by little, when supposedly un- 
watched, she would join in with the others, until gradually she has come to 
know by heart many beautiful chapters and verses. 

Some months ago I was present at a review of Old Testament stories from 
the Sunday School lessons. Many questions were being asked, and I seemed to 
hear one special voice answering up more quickly than the rest. I turned to 
listen, and would you believe it, there was my Gipsy Jane, eyes keen as they were 
bright, face intent as it was black, all her body alert to catch the questions and 
fling back the answers! Her Bible work is but an illustration of all her studies, 
she took to books as a duck to water. She is as bright as a dollar, and as sharp 
as a tack. Her penmanship is poor, but otherwise her work is splendid. Reading 


21 


and spelling she rolls off, arithmetic (the bugbear of most Indian schoolgirls) she 
delights in! In last month’s competitive examination she easily led her class of 
thirty-two boys and girls. ; 

All our children are not Gipsy Janes. Some of them are so slow that we 
often wonder if after all it is the wisest method to give them all a stipulated 
amount of book learning. The hard grind, the never-ending drill, the unrelenting 
routine, are things every faithful teacher of children, whether in India or America, 
knows only too well. And yet it is because we believe that, somehow, the result 
of all these things will be a Christian India that we labor on. The light has 
broken, the darkness is beginning to disappear. Many have come into the light 
and their lives are changed. Many more are touched by the light, but it has not 
yet really entered their minds and souls. To explain, I want to tell you about 
a brass bell and a sick boy. “She said to use it in the children’s school.” And 
the bearer handed me a brass hand bell, such as farmers hang around the necks 
of their favorite cattle. It was a good bell, and must have cost no little sum. 
“A Hindu woman,” the messenger went on to say, “handed it to me in the town 
yesterday and ‘said, ‘My boy is very ill at home. You Christians pray for him —I 
must run, I can’t stop to tell you the story.’” One could not help recalling the 
Syropheenician mother and her anxiety for the little sick daughter. She came 


22 


to the Great Healer in Palestine — this to an outsider, a heathen, and yet be- 
lieving in the power of the Christians’ prayer. 

The whole countryside is full of such people, how one longs to draw them to 
the loving, living Saviour, whom they unknowingly believe in. If her boy died, 
some angry demon, some old unappeased deity, some slighted family idol, must 
have snatched away from her mother heart the precious child. No one knew 
whither or why. And that very morning, not twenty miles away from the sick 
lad, our nearly two hundred boys and girls, clean, warm, and cosy in their 
Christian school and homes, were standing up to sing “Hymns of Praise A'scend 
with Early Dawn on High.” Their ideas of death and heaven “flowing robes of 
spotless white” and “joys that never fade.” 

If you should come to India and look at the wells, you would be surprised that 
more people do not fall into them than actually do, for they are great holes in 
the ground, sometimes many feet in diameter, and often without any protecting 
wall. The Kodoli school well is 22 feet in diameter, with a solid stone wall all | 
around, the parapet being about two and a half feet above the surface of the 
ground. Day after day the boys draw out the water and one often wonders how 
it is that they do not fall in. One day last June, however, a little boy about eight 
years old, who was playing near the well, contrary to the rules of the school, and 


23 


walking along the stone curbing, suddenly fell in. It was almost 42 feet to the 
water below and he could not swim. The boys who were drawing water raised a 
shout of horror, but they could do nothing to help. A teacher who was passing 
by rushed up to the missionary’s house to tell him that a boy had fallen in the 
well, but this used up precious moments. In the meantime, however, a boy in the 
dormitory, Vishnu by name, heard the boys’ outcry. He was over a hundred 
yards away from the well. He started on a run at once and as he ran he tore off 
his shirt. He wore no shoes so his feet were free. He did not have time to strip 
off any more clothing. Arrived at the well, without a moment’s hesitation, he 
jumped down to the water 42 feet below, and when the missionary arrived he saw 
that Vishnu had put the little boy in the well bucket and was himself swimming 
around trying to find some support. He had arrived none too soon, for the little 
boy had already begun to sink the second or third time. Both boys were drawn 
up by ropes and with the exception of aching heads and eyes neither seemed the 
worse for the experience. 

That afternoon instead of a funeral we had a celebration, and all saw the 
beauty of a life of service for others. The boy who had risked his life to save a 
schoolmate was a boy who was sent from a Hindu home by a village teacher, some 
ten miles from Kodoli, about three years ago. He did not seem specially bright, 


24 


but his willingness to study faithfully in a class of boys much smaller than him- 
self showed that he had good material in him. He has kept on steadily in his 
school work, has become popular among the boys, and has grown; in manliness. 
In the eyes of the school children, a very important part of the program was the 
reward given him to show how others appreciated his brave deed; the silver coins 
fell one after another into his hands till there were in all twenty-five, the 
equivalent of at least $75 to an American boy. That afternoon after school, when 
he came to ask the missionary to put his money away for him in safe keeping, 
without any suggestion from the missionary (who indeed had not even thought of 
such a thing), he said that he wished to give two of his rupees to the new Church 
building. May the number of such boys increase.” 


KopoLi STATION REPORT. 


25 


ITH THE SICK AT MIRAJ 


THE PATIENTS 


For most part of last year all the beds — frequently spaces between the beds, 
as well as extra beds on the verandas, have been occupied. Patients have come 
from far and near. From all parts of the Bombay Presidency they have come 
and some from provinces far beyond. Even Persia, Arabia and Africa have been 
represented by those who have sought treatment. All classes have freely availed 
themselves of the hospital services and none who could be helped have been denied 
treatment, yet it is sorely trying to be compelled to turn away incurables and 
others requiring hospital care, just for lack of accommodation. Most of such pa- 
tients are eye cases, not needing treatment as in-patients, but who, had accommoda- 
tions permitted, would have been admitted. The best lodging many of these people 
can find is the shelter of the roadside trees or the open verandas of the rest-house. 


26 


The keeping of boarding houses has become a profitable occupation for many 
persons having homes nearby. The Hindu Hotel, The Goanese Hotel, The 
Christian Hotel, The Parsi Hotel are recent establishments, which have sprung 
up overnight in various places in the town. Many Europeans with relatives and 
friends come to the hospital for treatment and for operations. 

The monotony of the daily round so common in the nursing profession is 
relieved, nay, almost absent, in the Miraj hospital, by personal as well as profes- 
sional interest. It is a joy to watch the stages of a patient’s condition. At first 
there is abject disinterestedness, then awakening interest, followed by thought for 
others and renewed vigor. With the hospital impress, they turn glad faces home- 
ward, and it is not ours to know how much of the Gospel learned, is passed on to 
others. Many of them come from distant villages where Europeans are rarely 
seen and a large hospital such as ours, with its electric lights and other up-to-date 
foreign apparatus, is apt to appear rather formidable; so they bring with them 
their friends and relatives to encourage them and lessen their fears. Sometimes 
one patient will be accompanied by so many people, that their presence in the 
ward becomes a trial to those in charge and admission has to be refused. These 
do not wander far from the hospital, they take up their abode in the nearby 
rest-house or under the trees on our compound. Many interesting incidents happen 


27 


in the wards in the course of a year. One which shows the superstition of the 
people, is the case of a woman who had been critically ill for some time. One 
morning her little daughter was sent to bring water from a neighboring tank. 
While drawing the water a crow alighted on her head. This is considered a very 
bad omen and evil consequences to the child could only be averted by causing the 
mother to shed tears. A message was therefore sent post haste to the mother, to 
tell her that her little daughter had fallen into the tank and was drowned. The 
message had the desired effect; the mother, overwhelmed with grief, wept bitterly, 
and it was not until the child, alive and well, was brought into the hospital ward 
that she could be comforted. She quite agreed with her friends that it was better 
for her to weep than that evil should overtake her child, but precautions of her 
friends proved to be of no avail, for within a few days, the children were left 
motherless. One morning a woman appeared at our veranda with a beautiful 
babe, which she wished to dispose of for the sum of rupees ten. We tried to show 
her how unnatural it was for a mother to sell her own child. She then told us 
how impossible it was for her to keep it and begged us to take it, which we did. 
Another woman, a patient, told us that unless we took charge of her infant she 
would throw it into the river or dispose of it in some other way. We tried to 
induce her to remain with the child and care for it, but her old mother would 


28 


not consent to this. A third case, a poor old woman who had heard that mission- 
aries would take children and care for them, brought her little grand-daughter. 
She was very poor and had not sufficient food for her children. She was forced to 
part with her daughter’s child. We greatly feel the need of a home where these 
little ones can be sheltered and cared for. 


SPIRITUAL RESULTS 


Spiritual statistics are difficult and often impossible of record. Patients and 
their friends have come from thousands of different villages far and near, and to 
all the Gospel of free grace and salvation through Christ, the Divine Physician, 
has been faithfully proclaimed. Tens of thousands of Christian tracts have gone 
to as many houses. Many hundreds of Christian books and Gospels have passed 
the portals of non-Christian homes. Who can tabulate the results? Much of this 
dissemination of Christian truth has fallen upon stony ground, more probably has 
fallen by the wayside, but that some has fallen on the good soil we are assured 
by the reports that come to us. 

One woman, who was a patient for four months, on leaving the hospital went 


29 


to Kodoli, and was baptized there last March. She said it was the teaching she 
received in the Miraj Hospital that led her to become a Christian. We have faith 
to believe that there are similar cases of which we do not hear, for the majority of 
patients come long distances and it is difficult to keep in touch with them, once 
they leave the hospital. 

The noon-day Gospel service for women patients and their friends has been 
conducted throughout the year in the women’s ward. It is often a task to conduct 
it for one’s audience changes from week to week and the country folk have no idea 
of keeping quiet. One grows accustomed to such distractions as shaking an iron 
cot to quiet a crying baby, reading a letter aloud, hair-dressing, feeding a patient 
and the scouring of pots and pans—for, there are always the earnest listeners 
who encourage us with a nod or word, or who, with tear-filled eyes, tell us their 
tale of woe. At such times I pray for “a heart of leisure from itself, to soothe 
and sympathize.” After the service we ‘sell copies of the Gospel from which we 
have read. An old man, who could not read, bought two Gospels to take home 
to his village that the people there might read what he had been hearing. A 
Brahmin widow said “My mother has gone mad over your lectures and hymns.” 
The dear old body was also a widow and had not heard the Gospel story before. 
It was a sweet new theme to her and she managed to be present at the meeting's 


30 


as long as her daughter was a patient. A Roman Catholic patient’s father asked 
that the prayer offered that day be written out for him, that he also might pray it. 
He added, “We do not understand the Latin prayers used in our Church, but 
even I could pray your simple prayer.” 


ol 


The Board of Foreign Missions 
of the 
Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 
156 Fifth Avenue, New York 


April 1916, Form No. 2384 


